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Going back to before Inglis began to engage the Black Mask. At the time the Royal Palace was swarmed with Magic Stone Beasts due to the Ironblood Chain Brigade’s handiwork…

「O-, oi! There’s a commotion over at the castle! It’s on fire!」
「W-what!? Y-, you’re right!」

The Knights of the Imperial Guard Order, who were in the Academy for Ripple’s transfer, noticed the disaster that befell the Royal Palace and began to kick up a fuss.

Silva, who was working with them, urged them on.

He was helping the preparation of Ripple’s transfer to the Imperial Guard Order’s base in the castle later tonight.

「I don’t know what happened, but it can’t be good! Isn’t it better to go back and check on it right now!? I’ll continue with the handover process!」

Silva was the younger brother of their Commander Redas. His words couldn’t be taken lightly, and he did make a point too.

「You’re right. Roger that, Mister Silva!」
「Sure! We can’t possibly bring Lady Ripple with us if we can’t make sure she’ll be safe!」
「We’ll take our leave! Please take care of the rest!」

The Knights hopped onto their Flygears and took off for the Royal Palace. Looking at their shrinking backs, Silva was attacked by pangs of guilt.

He knew what was happening, and yet he deliberately kept himself silent and effectively deceived them. The same with how he didn’t let them take Ripple to the Royal Castle until today, delaying the handover process to a great length.

He was sorry. He really was, but there was nothing else he could do, as this was to save Ripple.

「Okay! I need to hurry!」

Silva soon met up with Principal Miliera, Ripple, and the other students who served the Hyrule Menace escorting duty.

They were already gathering in a large classroom in the school’s building.

This was the room where Principal Miliera had first gathered the selected students from each year and explained the escorting duty to them. All of the forces had gathered there, with the exception of Inglis and Rafinha who had gone to guard the Royal Palace.

Leone and Liselotte were there too, they were sitting down with anxiety painted on their face. Near to them was Yua who was resting her chin on her hand, her head bobbing as if she would fall asleep anytime now.

「Sorry for the wait! Principal, Lady Ripple! Let’s start as soon as possible, we don’t have time!」

When Silva called out to her, Principal Miliera nodded with a serious look.

「Yes, Mister Silva. Everyone, I don’t know what will happen in this battle. However, let me say this beforehand; Your participation is voluntary. Please don’t push yourself too hard.」

Principal Miliera appealed to the students, but no one left their seats… or so it seemed at first, aside from one person.

「Ah. Then I’m going back to sleep.」

Spoke Yua with her eyes half-asleep, trying to leave.

「WHA!? Wait! Please wait, Miss Yua! We will be troubled without you!」

This operation was taken from Inglis’ proposal, where they would annihilate all the Magic Stone Beasts that Ripple would summon, effectively nullifying the mechanism that was activated as a sanction from the Highland.

Miliera and Silva who bore Special Grade Runes would need to supply a large amount of mana to Ripple in order to intentionally trigger the summoning. And so, it would be best to assume that they couldn’t help much in defeating the summoned Magic Stone Beasts.

In addition, to keep a low profile, they would conduct their operation in the subspace created by Gifts, which meant that Leone and other similar Gift users were mainly in charge of maintaining the subspace rather than directly joining the fight.

Thus, while it appeared that this group had the same amount of Special Grade Rune bearers as the Holy Knight Order, as well as a huge number of High Grade Rune owners, their military strength was by no means sufficient.

In such a situation, the participation of Yua, who was even stronger than Silva, who himself was a future Holy Knight candidate with a Special Grade Rune, was critically essential. They had no other choice but to have Yua be the center of the operation.

「Eh? Principal, didn’t you say our participation is voluntary?」
「I did say that, but that wasn’t what I said in my heart, or like it’s more like a promise, yes, a promise!」
「Promise?」
「While I did say that participation is voluntary, nobody goes back down, and in the end, I’ll say “Thank you everyone” and we all move into tears! Like, that kind of thing! Doesn’t that make your spirit burn!? Okay? Okay?」
「I don’t understand……?」

She craned her neck, completely poker-faced. Not a single soul knew what in the world was going on in that head of hers.

「Regardless of what the Principal said, as far as you’re concerned, your participation is mandatory. We need your strength. Please, help us.」

Saying such, Silva bowed to Yua upfront. In his perspective, Silva would argue that the full extent of his strength could only manifest when he joined hands with a weaponized Hyrule Menace, a weapon only Special Grade Rune bearers like him could handle. However, it didn’t change the fact that Yua was a necessity in this situation.

It was nothing to bow his head down and ask for help. It was for none other than Ripple

Ever since the day she saved his life when he was a child, he had been training hard to fight alongside her as a Holy Knight, and here he was. He didn’t want her to disappear before he could realize his goal in life.

Yua, on the other hand, seemed to be surprised by Silva’s behavior.

「Four-eyes… You’ve got a fever?」
「I don’t! I’m sober!」
「Ah, you are. Look how fast you snap.」
「Yeah, seeing the person I’m dealing with, the person!」
「W-, well well, let’s dial it down.」

It wasn’t Miliera, but Ripple, who interceded.

「Yua, let me ask you on my behalf too. Please, we need your strength for this operation.」

Saying that, she also bowed her head alongside Silva.